Misplaced Pages

#922077

93-555: The Patrone 88 cartridge was loaded with 2.75 g (42.4 gr) of single-base (based on nitrocellulose ) smokeless powder . The cartridge was based on a Swiss design and was loaded with a 8.08 mm (0.318 in) diameter 14.6 g (225 gr) round-nose full metal jacket bullet that was cupronickel plated and reached a muzzle velocity of 620 m/s (2,034 ft/s). The bullet core consisted of 95% lead and 5% antimony . It served as parent cartridge of several 8×57mm rimless and rimmed rifle cartridges. The Patrone 88

186-406: A photographic film . This was used commercially as "celluloid", a highly flammable plastic that until the mid-20th century formed the basis for lacquers and photographic film. On May 2, 1887, Hannibal Goodwin filed a patent for "a photographic pellicle and process of producing same ... especially in connection with roller cameras", but the patent was not granted until September 13, 1898. In

279-488: A Manton patch-lock, which could be troublesome, by designing a cap and nipple arrangement around 1816 when the patch lock was patented. He says he then presented a drawing to a reluctant Joseph Manton to make a few copper cap guns which were then sold. Hawker, seems to give Joseph Manton more of the glory eight years later in the 1838 edition of his 'Instructions to young Sportsmen', by stating categorically that "copper tubes and primers were decidedly invented by Joe Manton". By

372-584: A broken heating pipe at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio . That tragedy claimed 123 lives during the fire and additional fatalities several days later, when hospitalized victims died due to inhaling excessive amounts of smoke from the burning film, which was laced with toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen cyanide . Related fires in other medical facilities prompted the growing disuse of nitrocellulose stock for X-rays by 1933, nearly two decades before its use

465-481: A copper cup filled with fulminates. The first purpose-built caplock guns were fowling pieces commissioned by sportsmen in Regency era England. Due to the mechanism's compactness and superior reliability compared to the flintlock, gunsmiths were able to manufacture pistols and long guns with two barrels . Early caplock handguns with two or more barrels and a single lock are known as turn-over or twister pistols , due to

558-458: A cotton apron, and wiped it up. He hung the apron on the stove door to dry, and as soon as it was dry, a flash occurred as the apron ignited. His preparation method was the first to be widely used. The method was to immerse one part of fine cotton in 15 parts of an equal blend of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. After two minutes, the cotton was removed and washed in cold water to set the esterification level and to remove all acid residue. The cotton

651-407: A flame. For this reason, immersing burning film in water may not extinguish it, and could actually increase the amount of smoke produced. Owing to public safety precautions, London Underground forbade transport of movies on its system until well past the introduction of safety film. Cinema fires caused by the ignition of nitrocellulose film stock commonly occurred as well. In Ireland in 1926, it

744-422: A hard finish with a deep lustre. It is normally the first coat applied, then it is sanded and followed by other coatings that bond to it. Nail polish contains nitrocellulose, as it is inexpensive, dries quickly to a hard film, and does not damage skin. The explosive applications are diverse and nitrate content is typically higher for propellant applications than for coatings. For space flight, nitrocellulose

837-404: A jammed tape primer system would instead reduce the rifle to an awkward club. This invention was gradually improved, and came to be used, first in a steel cap and then in a copper cap, by various gunmakers and private individuals before coming into general military use nearly thirty years later. The alteration of the military flintlock to the percussion musket was easily accomplished by replacing

930-401: A nearly identical fashion to flintlock firearms and used a fulminating primer made of fulminate of mercury, chlorate of potash , sulphur and charcoal , ignited by concussion. His invention of a fulminate-primed firing mechanism deprived the birds of their early warning system, both by avoiding the initial puff of smoke from the flintlock powder pan, as well as shortening the interval between

1023-524: A nitrate base in the west, but rumors exist of 16 mm nitrate film having been produced in the former Soviet Union and China. Nitrate dominated the market for professional-use 35 mm motion picture film from the industry's origins to the early 1950s. While cellulose acetate-based safety film, notably cellulose diacetate and cellulose acetate propionate, was produced in the gauge for small-scale use in niche applications (such as printing advertisements and other short films to enable them to be sent through

SECTION 10

#1732851674923

1116-653: A number of reasons including environmental regulation and the cost of application vs. "poly" finishes. However, Gibson still use nitrocellulose lacquers on all of their guitars, as well as Fender when reproducing historically accurate guitars. The nitrocellulose lacquer yellows and cracks over time, and custom shops will reproduce this aging to make instruments appear vintage. Guitars made by smaller shops (luthiers) also often use "nitro" as it has an almost mythical status among guitarists. Because of its explosive nature, not all applications of nitrocellulose were successful. In 1869, with elephants having been poached to near extinction,

1209-464: A paper cartridge filled with black powder and strike the percussion cap that was fastened to the base of the bullet. While it had a number of problems, it was widely used by the Prussians and other German states in the mid-nineteenth century and was a major factor in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War . The needle gun originally fired paper cartridges containing a bullet, powder charge and percussion cap, but by

1302-405: A piece of flint to strike a steel frizzen producing sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the gun's main powder charge. The flintlock mechanism replaced older ignition systems such as the matchlock and wheellock , but all were prone to misfire in wet weather. The discovery of fulminates was made by Edward Charles Howard (1774–1816) in 1800. The invention that made

1395-523: A projectile driver, it had around six times the gas generation of an equal volume of black powder and produced less smoke and less heating. Artillery shells filled with gun cotton were widely used during the American Civil War , and its use was one of the reasons the conflict was seen as the "first modern war." In combination with breech-loading artillery , such high explosive shells could cause greater damage than previous solid cannonballs. During

1488-420: A rimmed 8×57mm IR variant. Nitrocellulose ( C 6 H 8 (NO 2 ) 2 O 5 ) n (dinitrocellulose) ( C 6 H 7 (NO 2 ) 3 O 5 ) n (trinitrocellulose, pictured in structures above) Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate , flash paper , flash cotton , guncotton , pyroxylin and flash string , depending on form)

1581-500: A supply of tiny fulminate detonator discs in a small magazine. Cocking the hammer automatically advanced a disc into position. However, these automatic feed systems were difficult to make with the manufacturing systems in the early and mid-nineteenth century and generated more problems than they solved. They were quickly shelved in favor of a single percussion cap that, while unwieldy in some conditions, could be carried in sufficient quantities to make up for occasionally dropping one, while

1674-805: Is 240 mm (1 in 9.45 in), 4 grooves, Ø of the lands = 7.80 mm (0.307 in), Ø grooves = 8.07 mm (0.318 in), land width = 4.40 mm (0.173 in) and the primer type is large rifle. According to the official C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives) rulings the 8×57mm I can handle up to 380.00 MPa (55,114 psi) P max piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C.I.P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that 8×57mm I chambered arms in C.I.P. regulated countries are currently (2017) proof tested at 475.00 MPa (68,893 psi) PE piezo pressure. The rimless 8×57mm I cartridge has been used as parent case for

1767-431: Is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid . One of its first major uses was as guncotton, a replacement for gunpowder as propellant in firearms. It was also used to replace gunpowder as a low-order explosive in mining and other applications. In the form of collodion it was also a critical component in an early photographic emulsion,

1860-450: Is believed to be the initial cause of the 2015 Tianjin explosions . Percussion cap The percussion cap , percussion primer , or caplock , introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave rise to the caplock mechanism or percussion lock system which used percussion caps struck by

1953-453: Is for the production of lacquers and coatings, explosives, and celluloid . In terms of lacquers and coatings, nitrocellulose dissolves readily in organic solvents, which upon evaporation leave a colorless, transparent, flexible film. Nitrocellulose lacquers have been used as a finish on furniture and musical instruments. Guncotton, dissolved at about 25% in acetone , forms a lacquer used in preliminary stages of wood finishing to develop

SECTION 20

#1732851674923

2046-431: Is less prone to stretching than other available plastics. By the late 1990s, polyester had almost entirely superseded triacetate for the production of intermediate elements and release prints. Triacetate remains in use for most camera negative stocks because it can be "invisibly" spliced using solvents during negative assembly, while polyester film is usually spliced using adhesive tape patches, which leave visible marks in

2139-435: Is much more resistant to polymer degradation than either nitrate or triacetate. Although triacetate does not decompose in as dangerous a way as nitrate does, it is still subject to a process known as deacetylation, often nicknamed "vinegar syndrome" (due to the acetic acid smell of decomposing film) by archivists, which causes the film to shrink, deform, become brittle and eventually unusable. PET, like cellulose mononitrate,

2232-434: Is not a nitro compound , but a nitrate ester . The glucose repeat unit (anhydroglucose) within the cellulose chain has three OH groups, each of which can form a nitrate ester. Thus, nitrocellulose can denote mononitrocellulose , dinitrocellulose , and trinitrocellulose , or a mixture thereof. With fewer OH groups than the parent cellulose, nitrocelluloses do not aggregate by hydrogen bonding . The overarching consequence

2325-494: Is soluble in a mixture of ethanol and ether until nitrogen concentration exceeds 12%. Soluble nitrocellulose, or a solution thereof, is sometimes called collodion . Guncotton containing more than 13% nitrogen (sometimes called insoluble nitrocellulose) was prepared by prolonged exposure to hot, concentrated acids for limited use as a blasting explosive or for warheads of underwater weapons such as naval mines and torpedoes . Safe and sustained production of guncotton began at

2418-459: Is that the nitrocellulose is soluble in organic solvents such as acetone and esters; e.g., ethyl acetate , methyl acetate , ethyl carbonate . Most lacquers are prepared from the dinitrate, whereas explosives are mainly the trinitrate. The chemical equation for the formation of the trinitrate is The yields are about 85%, with losses attributed to complete oxidation of the cellulose to oxalic acid . The principal uses of cellulose nitrate

2511-543: The 1853 Enfield and 1861 Springfield , this involved installing a firing pin in place of the nipple, and a trapdoor in the breech to accept the new bullets. Examples include the Trapdoor Springfield , Tabatière rifle , Westley Richards and Snider–Enfield conversions. The British Army used Snider Enfields contemporaneously with the Martini–Henry rifle until the .303 bolt action Lee–Metford repeating rifle

2604-718: The Edison Company at another location on December 9, at its film-processing complex in West Orange, New Jersey . That catastrophic fire started inside a film-inspection building and caused over $ 7,000,000 in property damages ($ 213,000,000 today). Even after film technology changed, archives of older films remained vulnerable; the 1965 MGM vault fire burned many films that were decades old. The use of volatile nitrocellulose film for motion pictures led many cinemas to fireproof their projection rooms with wall coverings made of asbestos . Those additions intended to prevent or at least delay

2697-590: The Paris Exhibition of 1889 . Commercial production started in 1891, but the result was flammable and more expensive than cellulose acetate or cuprammonium rayon. Because of this predicament, production ceased early in the 1900s. Nitrocellulose was briefly known as "mother-in-law silk". Frank Hastings Griffin invented the double-godet, a special stretch-spinning process that changed artificial silk to rayon, rendering it usable in many industrial products such as tire cords and clothing. Nathan Rosenstein invented

2790-502: The Patrone 88 was not abandoned by civilian users like hunters. German civilian gunsmiths kept trying to improve the chambering. They took a somewhat similar engineering approach as the German military used, but instead of deepening the grooves and widening the bullet, they reduced the diameter of the lands and grooves whilst leaving the Patrone 88 cartridge itself unchanged. These efforts solved

2883-1132: The US Cavalry during the Indian Wars , and also by gunfighters , lawmen, and outlaws in the old west. In the 1840s and 1850s, the percussion cap was first integrated into a metallic cartridge, where the bullet is held in by the casing, the casing is filled with gunpowder, and a primer is placed on the end. By the 1860s and 1870s, breech-loading metallic cartridges had made the percussion cap system obsolete. Today, reproduction percussion firearms are popular for recreational shooters and percussion caps are still available (though some modern muzzleloaders use shotshell primers instead of caps). Most percussion caps now use non-corrosive compounds such as lead styphnate . Caps are used in cartridges , grenades , rocket-propelled grenades and rescue flares . Percussion caps are also used in land mine fuzes , booby-trap firing devices and anti-handling devices . Most purpose-made military booby-trap firing devices contain some form of spring-loaded firing pin designed to strike

Patrone 88 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2976-560: The Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills in the 1860s, and the material rapidly became the dominant explosive, becoming the standard for military warheads, although it remained too potent to be used as a propellant. More-stable and slower-burning collodion mixtures were eventually prepared using less concentrated acids at lower temperatures for smokeless powder in firearms . The first practical smokeless powder made from nitrocellulose, for firearms and artillery ammunition,

3069-478: The billiards industry offered a US$ 10,000 prize to whoever came up with the best replacement for ivory billiard balls . John Wesley Hyatt created the winning replacement, which he created with a new material he invented, called camphored nitrocellulose—the first thermoplastic , better known as celluloid . The invention enjoyed a brief popularity, but the Hyatt balls were extremely flammable, and sometimes portions of

3162-442: The hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in rifles and cap and ball firearms . Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun . Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle . Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot. The percussion cap is a small cylinder of copper or brass with one closed end. Inside

3255-461: The "spunize process" by which he turned rayon from a hard fiber to a fabric. This allowed rayon to become a popular raw material in textiles. Nitrocellulose lacquer manufactured by (among others) DuPont , was the primary material for painting automobiles for many years. Durability of finish, complexities of "multiple stage" modern finishes, and other factors including environmental regulation led manufacturers to choose newer technologies. It remained

3348-440: The 1850s Hawker was again claiming the invention for himself in his press advertisements. Despite many years of research by Winant, Gooding and De Witt Bailey, the jury is still out as the competing claims are based on personal accounts and have little or no independently verifiable evidence. While the metal percussion cap was the most popular and widely used type of primer, their small size made them difficult to handle under

3441-467: The 1850s onwards, and new guns based on existing designs were manufactured as caplocks. The Austrians instead used a variant of Manton's tube lock in their Augustin musket until the conventional caplock Lorenz rifle was introduced in 1855. The first practical solution for the problem of handling percussion caps in battle was the Prussian 1841 ( Dreyse needle gun ), which used a long needle to penetrate

3534-638: The Bronx. On May 13, a fire at Universal Pictures ' Colonial Hall "film factory" in Manhattan consumed another extensive collection. Yet again, on June 13 in Philadelphia, a fire and a series of explosions ignited inside the 186-square-meter (2,000-square-foot) film vault of the Lubin Manufacturing Company and quickly wiped out virtually all of that studio's pre-1914 catalogue. Then a second fire hit

3627-554: The US military was the percussion carbine version (c.1833) of the M1819 Hall rifle . The Americans' breech loading caplock Hall rifles, muzzle loading rifled muskets and Colt Dragoon revolvers gave them an advantage over the smoothbore flintlock Brown Bess muskets used by Santa Anna 's troops during the Mexican War . In Japan, matchlock pistols and muskets were converted to percussion from

3720-415: The budgets of many smaller theaters. In practice, though, this has not proved to be as much of a problem as was feared. Rather, with the increased use of automated long-play systems in cinemas, the greater strength of polyester has been a significant advantage in lessening the risk of a film performance being interrupted by a film break. Despite its self-oxidizing hazards, nitrate is still regarded highly as

3813-402: The bullets the Patrone 88 was loaded with remained however unchanged and accuracy did not improve. As of 1915 the Patrone 88 bullets became tombac plated. In German military service the Patrone 88 was replaced in 1904 and 1905 by the S Patrone a.k.a. 7.92×57mm Mauser . Besides the S Patrone chambering, the S Patrone bore (designated as "S-bore") was also dimensionally redesigned:

Patrone 88 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3906-406: The chambering of the feed and takeup reels in thick metal covers with small slits to allow the film to run through them. The projector is additionally modified to accommodate several fire extinguishers with nozzles aimed at the film gate. The extinguishers automatically trigger if a piece of film near the gate starts to burn. While this triggering would likely damage or destroy a significant portion of

3999-401: The closed end is a small amount of a shock-sensitive explosive material such as mercuric fulminate (discovered in 1800; it was the only practical detonator used from about the mid-19th century to the early 20th century ). The caplock mechanism consists of a hammer and a nipple (sometimes referred to as a cone ). The nipple contains a hollow conduit which goes into the rearmost part of

4092-439: The concentration of unreacted acid. In 1855, the first human-made plastic , nitrocellulose (branded Parkesine , patented in 1862), was created by Alexander Parkes from cellulose treated with nitric acid and a solvent. In 1868, American inventor John Wesley Hyatt developed a plastic material he named Celluloid , improving on Parkes' invention by plasticizing the nitrocellulose with camphor so that it could be processed into

4185-428: The early 20th century were lost through this accelerating, self-catalyzed disintegration or through studio warehouse fires, and many others were deliberately destroyed specifically to avoid the fire risk. Salvaging old films is a major problem for film archivists (see film preservation ). Nitrocellulose film base manufactured by Kodak can be identified by the presence of the word "nitrate" in dark letters along one edge;

4278-408: The early 20th century, many arms originally chambered for the Patrone 88 could be and were adapted for chambering the S Patrone by reaming out metal from the chamber as it required a wider chamber throat to take the differently shaped and thicker brass of the new S Patrone . Civilian rifles were also chambered for the Patrone 88 . After the adoption of the 7.92×57mm Mauser by the German military,

4371-519: The early to mid 20th century for destroying or heavily damaging cinemas, inflicting many serious injuries and deaths, and for reducing to ashes the master negatives and original prints of tens of thousands of screen titles, turning many of them into lost films . Even when nitrate stock did not start the blaze, flames from other sources spread to large nearby film collections, producing intense and highly destructive fires. In 1914—the same year that Goodwin Film

4464-433: The favorite of hobbyists for both historical reasons and for the ease with which a professional finish can be obtained. Most automobile "touch up" paints are still made from lacquer because of its fast drying, easy application, and superior adhesion properties – regardless of the material used for the original finish. Guitars sometimes shared color codes with current automobiles. It fell out of favor for mass production use for

4557-417: The first World War , British authorities were slow to introduce grenades, with soldiers at the front improvising by filling ration tin cans with gun cotton , scrap and a basic fuse. Further research indicated the importance of washing the acidified cotton. Unwashed nitrocellulose (sometimes called pyrocellulose) may spontaneously ignite and explode at room temperature , as the evaporation of water results in

4650-418: The flintlock. Many of the older flintlock weapons were later converted to the caplock, so that they could take advantage of these features. Joshua Shaw is sometimes credited (primarily by himself) with the development of the first metallic percussion cap in 1814, a reusable one made of iron, then a disposable pewter one in 1815 and finally a copper one in 1816. There is no independent proof of this since Shaw

4743-586: The fragments of the cap if it fragmented, reducing the risk of injury to the firer's eyes. From the 1820s onwards, the armies of Britain, France, Russia, and America began converting their muskets to the new percussion system. Caplocks were generally applied to the British military musket (the Brown Bess ) in 1842, a quarter of a century after the invention of percussion powder and after an elaborate government test at Woolwich in 1834. The first percussion firearm produced for

SECTION 50

#1732851674923

4836-462: The frame area. However, ultrasonic splicing in the frame line area can be invisible. Also, polyester film is so strong, it will not break under tension and may cause serious damage to expensive camera or projector mechanisms in the event of a film jam, whereas triacetate film breaks easily, reducing the risk of damage. Many were opposed to the use of polyester for release prints for this reason, and because ultrasonic splicers are very expensive, beyond

4929-518: The gun barrel, and the percussion cap is placed over the nipple hole. Pulling the trigger releases the hammer, which strikes the percussion cap against the nipple (which serves as an anvil ), crushes it and detonates the mercury fulminate inside, which releases sparks that travel through the hollow nipple into the barrel and ignite the main powder charge. Percussion caps have been made in small sizes for pistols and larger sizes for rifles and muskets. Earlier firearms used flintlock mechanisms causing

5022-573: The idea in Britain. The earliest known patent anywhere in the world which specifically mentions a percussion cap and nipple was granted in France on 29 July 1818 to François Prélat , four years before Shaw's patent. Prelat made a habit of copying English patents and inventions and the mode of operation he describes is flawed. Secondly a French patent of a percussion cap and nipple had been granted in 1820 to Deboubert. However predating both of these French claims,

5115-446: The idea until 1822, having moved to America in 1817. According to Lewis Winant, the US government's decision to award Shaw $ 25,000 as compensation for his invention being used by the Army was a mistake. Congress believed Shaw's patent was the earliest in the world and awarded him a large sum of money based on this belief. The investigators had overlooked two French patents and the earlier use of

5208-620: The landing. Collodion, a solution of nitrocellulose, is used today in topical skin applications, such as liquid skin and in the application of salicylic acid , the active ingredient in Compound W wart remover. In 1832 Henri Braconnot discovered that nitric acid, when combined with starch or wood fibers, would produce a lightweight combustible explosive material, which he named xyloïdine . A few years later in 1838, another French chemist, Théophile-Jules Pelouze (teacher of Ascanio Sobrero and Alfred Nobel ), treated paper and cardboard in

5301-419: The launch of cellulose triacetate base film by Eastman Kodak in 1948. Cellulose triacetate superseded nitrate as the film industry's mainstay base very quickly. While Kodak had discontinued some nitrate film stocks earlier, it stopped producing various nitrate roll films in 1950 and ceased production of nitrate 35 mm motion picture film in 1951. The crucial advantage cellulose triacetate had over nitrate

5394-454: The mails without the need for fire safety precautions), the early generations of safety film base had two major disadvantages relative to nitrate: it was much more expensive to manufacture, and considerably less durable in repeated projection. The cost of the safety precautions associated with the use of nitrate was significantly lower than the cost of using any of the safety bases available before 1948. These drawbacks were eventually overcome with

5487-502: The manufacture of guncotton were obtained by John Hall & Son in 1846, and industrial manufacture of the explosive began at a purpose-built factory at Marsh Works in Faversham, Kent , a year later. The manufacturing process was not properly understood and few safety measures were put in place. A serious explosion in July that killed almost two dozen workers resulted in the immediate closure of

5580-448: The meantime, George Eastman had already started production of roll-film using his own process. Nitrocellulose was used as the first flexible film base , beginning with Eastman Kodak products in August 1889. Camphor is used as a plasticizer for nitrocellulose film, often called nitrate film. Goodwin's patent was sold to Ansco , which successfully sued Eastman Kodak for infringement of

5673-455: The migration of flames beyond the projection areas. A training film for projectionists included footage of a controlled ignition of a reel of nitrate film, which continued to burn even when fully submerged in water. Once burning, it is extremely difficult to extinguish. Unlike most other flammable materials, nitrocellulose does not need a source of air to continue burning, since it contains sufficient oxygen within its molecular structure to sustain

SECTION 60

#1732851674923

5766-409: The most likely inventor of the percussion cap, according to historian Sidney James Gooding, was Joseph Egg (nephew of Durs Egg ), around 1817, . There were other earlier claims. Col. Peter Hawker in 1830 simultaneously claimed and denied being the inventor. "I do not wish to say I was the inventor of it - very probably not" but then immediately recounts that he came up with the idea of simplifying

5859-432: The need to manually rotate the second barrel to align with the hammer. With the addition of a third barrel, and a ratchet to mechanically turn the barrels while cocking the hammer, these caplock pistols evolved into the pepper-box revolver during the 1830s. The caplock offered many improvements over the flintlock. The caplock was easier and quicker to load, more resilient to weather conditions, and far more reliable than

5952-428: The new bullet with a shorter cylindrical part had reduced bearing surface , which necessitated increasing its diameter to 8.20 mm (0.323 in), the exact diameter of the grooves. The S Patrone and its new spitzer bullet provided the accuracy and barrel life improvements the German military was looking for. As the bolt thrust of the 7.92×57mm Mauser is relatively low compared to many other service rounds used in

6045-425: The original bore the diameter of the lands was 7.90 mm (0.311 in) and the diameter of the grooves was 8.10 mm (0.319 in). In 1894/1895 the bore dimensions were changed in an attempt to improve accuracy and barrel life. The diameter of the lands remained 7.90 mm (0.311 in) and the diameter of the grooves was changed to 8.20 mm (0.323 in). The 8.08 mm (0.318 in) diameter of

6138-465: The outer shell would explode upon impact. An owner of a billiard saloon in Colorado wrote to Hyatt about the explosive tendencies, saying that he did not mind very much personally but for the fact that every man in his saloon immediately pulled a gun at the sound. The process used by Hyatt to manufacture the billiard balls, patented in 1881, involved placing the mass of nitrocellulose in a rubber bag, which

6231-399: The patent and was awarded $ 5,000,000 in 1914 to Goodwin Film. Disastrous fires related to celluloid or "nitrate film" became regular occurrences in the motion picture industry throughout the silent era and for many years after the arrival of sound film . Projector fires and spontaneous combustion of nitrate footage stored in studio vaults and in other structures were often blamed during

6324-522: The percussion cap possible using the recently discovered fulminates was patented by the Reverend Alexander John Forsyth of Belhelvie , Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1807. The rudimentary percussion system was invented by Forsyth as a solution to the problem that birds would startle when smoke puffed from the powder pan of his flintlock shotgun, giving them sufficient warning to escape the shot. This early percussion lock system operated in

6417-530: The plant. Guncotton manufacture ceased for over 15 years until a safer procedure could be developed. The British chemist Frederick Augustus Abel developed the first safe process for guncotton manufacture, which he patented in 1865. The washing and drying times of the nitrocellulose were both extended to 48 hours and repeated eight times over. The acid mixture was changed to two parts sulfuric acid to one part nitric. Nitration can be controlled by adjusting acid concentrations and reaction temperature. Nitrocellulose

6510-412: The powder pan and steel frizzen with a nipple and by replacing the cock or hammer that held the flint by a smaller hammer formed with a hollow made to fit around the nipple when released by the trigger. On the nipple was placed the copper cap containing Shaw's detonating composition of three parts of chlorate of potash, two of fulminate of mercury and one of powdered glass. The hollow in the hammer contained

6603-623: The problems the German military had experienced with the Patrone 88 and resulted and were finalized in what is now known as the 8×57mm I chambering, I (or often, albeit incorrectly, J , which is due to visual similarity of Fraktur I to Roman J) standing for German Infanterie 'infantry'. In 1939 the Normalisierungsverordnung (normalization regulation) effectively prohibited the production of non-S-bore/7.92×57mm Mauser chambered arms in Nazi Germany. In post World War II Germany

6696-435: The production of the various preceding chamberings is allowed again, but these chamberings have become rare in post 1939 produced arms. The cartridge has a cartridge case capacity of 4.03 ml (62 grains) H 2 O. [REDACTED] 8×57mm I maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters. Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 19.1 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge

6789-528: The projector's components, it would contain a fire and prevent far greater damage. Projection rooms may also be required to have automatic metal covers for the projection windows, preventing the spread of fire to the auditorium . Today, the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum is one of a few theaters in the world that is capable of safely projecting nitrate films and regularly screens them to

6882-597: The public. The BFI Southbank in London is the only cinema in the United Kingdom licensed to show Nitrate Film. The use of nitrate film and its fiery potential were certainly not issues limited to the realm of motion pictures or to commercial still photography. The film was also used for many years in medicine, where its hazardous nature was most acute, especially in its application to X-ray photography. In 1929, several tons of stored X-ray film were ignited by steam from

6975-455: The same way. Jean-Baptiste Dumas obtained a similar material, which he called nitramidine . Around 1846 Christian Friedrich Schönbein , a German-Swiss chemist, discovered a more practical formulation. As he was working in the kitchen of his home in Basel , he spilled a mixture of nitric acid (HNO 3 ) and sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) on the kitchen table. He reached for the nearest cloth,

7068-446: The stock is more transparent than replacement stocks, and older films used denser silver in the emulsion. The combination results in a notably more luminous image with a high contrast ratio. The solubility of nitrocellulose was the basis for the first " artificial silk " by Georges Audemars in 1855, which he called " Rayon ". . However, Hilaire de Chardonnet was the first to patent a nitrocellulose fiber marketed as "artificial silk" at

7161-409: The stress of combat or while riding a horse. Accordingly, several manufacturers developed alternative, "auto-priming" systems. The " Maynard tape primer ", for example, used a roll of paper "caps" much like today's toy cap gun . The Maynard tape primer was fitted to some firearms used in the mid-nineteenth century and a few saw brief use in the American Civil War . Other disc or pellet-type primers held

7254-582: The time of the Franco-Prussian War this had evolved into modern brass ammunition. The percussion cap brought about the invention of the modern cartridge case and made possible the general adoption of the breech-loading principle for all varieties of rifles, shotguns and pistols. After the American Civil War, Britain, France, and America began converting existing caplock guns to accept brass rimfire and centrefire cartridges. For muskets such as

7347-503: The trigger pull and the shot leaving the muzzle. Forsyth patented his "scent bottle" ignition system in 1807. However, it was not until after Forsyth's patents expired that the conventional percussion cap system was developed. Joseph Manton invented a precursor to the percussion cap in 1814, comprising a copper tube that detonated when crushed. This was further developed in 1822 by the English-born American artist Joshua Shaw , as

7440-416: The use of which revolutionized photography in the 1860s. In the 20th century it was adapted to automobile lacquer and adhesives . The process uses a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid to convert cellulose into nitrocellulose. The quality of the cellulose is important. Hemicellulose , lignin , pentosans , and mineral salts give inferior nitrocelluloses. In precise chemical terms, nitrocellulose

7533-489: The word only in clear letters on a dark background indicates derivation from a nitrate base original negative or projection print, but the film in hand itself may be a later print or copy negative, made on safety film. Acetate film manufactured during the era when nitrate films were still in use was marked "Safety" or "Safety Film" along one edge in dark letters. 8 , 9.5 , and 16 mm film stocks, intended for amateur and other nontheatrical use, were never manufactured with

7626-591: Was adopted by the German Empire in 1888 as service cartridge along with the Gewehr 1888 service rifle. Reportedly the initial version of the design was of two-piece construction like the 11×60mm Mauser and rimmed (so-called M88A, later developed into M88/8R or 8X57 IR hunting cartridge), but then a modern, "cannelured" type of cartridge case was introduced, which, despite being patented at least as early as 1867 (by Joseph Whitworth ), wasn't used by any military before. In

7719-410: Was advised he could not patent it due to Alexander Forsyth's patent for using fulminates to ignite guns being in force between 1807 and 1821. Shaw says he only shared the development of his innovation with a few associates (gunmakers and others) who were sworn to secrecy and never provided affidavits at a later date. Shaw's claim to have been the inventor remains clouded in controversy as he did not patent

7812-740: Was awarded $ 5,000,000 from Kodak for patent infringement—nitrate film fires incinerated a significant portion of the United States' early cinematic history. In that year alone, five very destructive fires occurred at four major studios and a film-processing plant. Millions of feet of film burned on March 19 at the Eclair Moving Picture Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey . Later that same month, many more reels and film cans of negatives and prints also burned at Edison Studios in New York City, in

7905-659: Was blamed for the Dromcolliher cinema tragedy in County Limerick in which 48 people died. Then in 1929 at the Glen Cinema in Paisley, Scotland , a film-related fire killed 69 children. Today, nitrate film projection is rare and normally highly regulated and requires extensive precautions, including extra health-and-safety training for projectionists. A special projector certified to run nitrate films has many modifications, among them

7998-408: Was discontinued for motion-picture films in favour of cellulose acetate film , more commonly known as "safety film". Nitrocellulose was found to gradually decompose, releasing nitric acid and further catalyzing the decomposition (eventually into a flammable powder). Decades later, storage at low temperatures was discovered as a means of delaying these reactions indefinitely. Many films produced during

8091-580: Was introduced in the 1880s. Later, military surplus Sniders were purchased as hunting and defensive weapons by British colonists and trusted local natives. Caplock revolvers such as the Colt Navy and Remington were also widely converted during the late 19th century, by replacing the existing cylinder with one designed for modern ammunition. These were used extensively by the Turks in the Russo-Turkish War ,

8184-607: Was invented by French chemist Paul Vieille in 1884. Jules Verne viewed the development of guncotton with optimism. He referred to the substance several times in his novels. His adventurers carried firearms employing this substance. In his From the Earth to the Moon , guncotton was used to launch a projectile into space. Because of their fluffy and nearly white appearance, nitrocellulose products are often referred to as cottons, e.g. lacquer cotton, celluloid cotton, and gun cotton. Guncotton

8277-441: Was originally made from cotton (as the source of cellulose) but contemporary methods use highly processed cellulose from wood pulp . While guncotton is dangerous to store, the hazards it presents can be minimized by storing it dampened with various liquids, such as alcohol. For this reason, accounts of guncotton usage dating from the early 20th century refer to "wet guncotton." The power of guncotton made it suitable for blasting. As

8370-425: Was that it was no more of a fire risk than paper (the stock is often referred to as "non-flam": this is true—but it is combustible, just not in as volatile or as dangerous a way as nitrate), while it almost matched the cost and durability of nitrate. It remained in almost exclusive use in all film gauges until the 1980s, when polyester / PET film began to supersede it for intermediate and release printing. Polyester

8463-438: Was then placed in a cylinder of liquid and heated. Pressure was applied to the liquid in the cylinder, which resulted in a uniform compression on the nitrocellulose mass, compressing it into a uniform sphere as the heat vaporized the solvents. The ball was then cooled and turned to make a uniform sphere. In light of the explosive results, this process was called the "Hyatt gun method". An overheated container of dry nitrocellulose

8556-545: Was then slowly dried at a temperature below 40 °C (104 °F). Schönbein collaborated with the Frankfurt professor Rudolf Christian Böttger , who had discovered the process independently in the same year. By coincidence, a third chemist, the Brunswick professor F. J. Otto had also produced guncotton in 1846 and was the first to publish the process, much to the disappointment of Schönbein and Böttger. The patent rights for

8649-480: Was used by Copenhagen Suborbitals on several missions as a means of jettisoning components of the rocket/space capsule and deploying recovery systems. However, after several missions and flights, it proved not to have the desired explosive properties in a near vacuum environment. In 2014, the Philae comet lander failed to deploy its harpoons because its 0.3 grams of nitrocellulose propulsion charges failed to fire during

#922077